Episode 19 From Stornoway

 

Episode 19 From Stornoway 

Filters arrived about 11:30, under way by noon.  

We are off again departing Stornoway for the third time this season. Engine running, all is good, following wind and we are heading South....back to family and friends in Ireland.  We have five spare filters with a new one in place.  

 The harbour master told us this will be the site of a new deep draft, big ship port. They will just blast all the rock out of the way.  

Look out shelters on the south side of the harbour entrance. 

Light air that died after 40 minuets of sailing so thankfully we had the engine working. 

The Shiant Islands, 22 miles from Stornoway separating the Minch from the Little Minch in the Sea of the Hebrides  The anchorage is suggested only in settled conditions. No wind, conditions were settled....not in Iceland but "settled" in Scotland.  

 Hole through the cliff.

 Very deep, we anchored in 20 meters. 

There are two boats anchored in the far corner. There was a bunch of sea kayaks on the gravel shore at the only flat place for tents. The noise of the birds was huge with the boat getting covered in droppings. A bird watcher paradise. We had both bird books out looking up and what we were seeing. Wish we could have seen the stars it was so dark. 

 Our view of the Outer Hebrides as we went further south the next day.  

 The Shiant Isands astern, we saw a seal that followed us for a bit. What a magical place that was. 

Dolphins visited us off Dunvegan, Isle of Skye.

Ardnamurchan Point light house, SW Skye. The fog horn looked like a large bore cannon. It was close to here where we saw a basking shark. 

Dolphin's

They loved playing in our bow wave.

Can you see them below the surface?

 Normally they stay for a minute or two..

Mother and calf

It feels so great to see them.

 We could watch them for hours but they flitter away as quick as they come. 

 The view of the bay south of Ardnamurchan point across from Tobermory. Think the hills may be what they call the small islands,  (Muck and Eigg).

We had raised anchor 0530 from the Shiant Islands and were underway till 20:45 having done 90 miles in almost flat calm the whole way. Engine running just fine!

 

 Only mooring was a big boat mooring, nothing to do with the harbour authority so we slept poorly expecting to be woken up and told to move. 

What a beautiful evening.   90 NM in 16 hours, we were exhausted.  

Fowl forecast so we tried to get into the pontoon well where they wanted to place us was too tight for our comfort to navigate into so we opted for a close by mooing. It was wet wild and windy, too much so for the trouble to get off the boat, into the dingy and to the shore...So if I recall correctly that was where we last up dated the blog... Thought we ought to let you all know there had been a change of plan. 

The next day we were under way by 0630.....with the forecast we had a plan. Via Oban to get some fuel and then on to the Crinan Canal.  We will tell you about this in the next episode.

And so ends this blog.  Hope you will join us with the next as our adventure for this summer continues.